Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant

Louis Brandeis, who presided over the US Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939, famously stated, "Sunlight is said to be one of the best disinfectants." Far from offering medical advice, he was emphasizing the power of openness and transparency to battle evil and corruption. Though his December 1913 Harper's Weekly article specifically lambasted the concentration of wealth amongst an oligarchy of investment bankers and financiers, the maxim certainly applies in other contexts. Very few recent examples of the power of information are as salient as the uprisings in the Middle East.

Much ado has been made about Facebook and Twitter concerning their role in the recent revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. (Guilty as charged.) However, yesterday Thomas Freidman wrote a refreshing list of alternate forces motivating the unrest in the Arab world in his opinion column in the New York Times. Friedman lists several "not-so-obvious forces" for revolution. Among them is a piece of technology that has been available in the US since 2005 and has captured few headlines during the current events. I'm talking about Google Earth.

Friedman lists Google Earth as a force driving change because it enables young Bahrainian men to see just how unequal the distribution of land is in the country. Friedman tells the story of one man who used Google Earth to see just how much land the royal family controls. He lives in a cramped house with 17 people. Of course, this is just the example Friedman chose, but you can imagine a host of similar scenarios. Protesters have seized the opportunity that Google Earth presents and urged people to use the tool themselves to hold the government accountable.

Why is this a huge deal? Google Earth wasn't created as a tool for demonstrators or rebels. It was first used to give virtual fly-over tours, locate all the gas stations in your neighborhood, measure the length of the bike ride you just finished, and other such subversive activities. Google Earth is used for lots of things, but its inspiration doesn't come from any of its applications. It was created by a company in love with information and born solely out of that devotion.

Google's mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." The company's commitment to openness partially stems from founder Sergey Brin's childhood experience of anti-semitism and oppression in the Soviet Union. Google's idealism, somewhat rare among companies with a $193 billion market capitalization, results in literally world-changing, regime toppling technology like Google Earth. The company's faith in the power of information allows it to pursue products like Google Earth that provide no obvious or immediate modes of monetization.

Brandeis struck an enduring chord when he made his famous pronouncement in 1913. Almost 100 years later, totalitarian regimes still thrive on opacity and privileged information. Technology, especially the Internet, is making this strategy less sustainable. (Why do you think China is so afraid of an uncensored Internet?) Bahrain, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries are making this truth abundantly obvious. Brandeis also wrote, "Electric light is the most efficient policeman." Perhaps Google Earth is the most powerful rebel.